申请结果：
Offer：
Math@MSU, Operations Research@NCSU, Applied Math and Statistics@UIC, Industrial Engineering@TAMU, Industrial and Systems Engineering@Gatech, Industrial Engineering@ASU, Math@USouthCarolina
Admission:
Systems and Entrepreneurial Engineering@UIUC, Industrial Engineering@Purdue, F
inancial Math@FSU, Applied Math and Statistics@Stony Brook
Waiting List:
Applied Math@UMN, Math@UCDavis, Operations Research and Industrial Engineering@Cornell
Rejection:
Math@Rutgers, Industrial Engineering and Management Science@Northwestern, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research@Columbia, Math@RPI
Pending:
Applied Math@UMass, Applied Math@IIT, Industrial and Systems Engineering@UFL,
Math@UUtah, Applied Math@UHouston, Applied Math and Statistics@JHU, Applied Math@VT
在GRE的准备方面，Sub主要参考一下Princeton Review的Cracking GRE 的那本书，第二版就够了。General主要就是背单词和做题，GRE在90年代末期出过的几本书都不错，每种题型有一本书，我现在只记得填空好像是杨继写的，类比和反义是一本，阅读是一本。我是04年考的General，感觉大部分词汇题那几本参考书上都有。没有必要去上新东方，我和周围的一些朋友都是通过这种方法来准备的，最后结果都不错。另外，不用在General上花费太多时间，主要还是要学好专业课，毕竟出去以后是做学术研究而不是背单词。
The moment I learned the idea of simulation in my junior year, I suddenly real
ized how my favorite PC game, ‘Roller Coaster Tycoon’ worked. How did its ga
me programmers know when Jimmy would enter the virtual park? When Tony would r
ide a roller coaster, which one he would choose and what his reaction would be
? Simply put, what magic did the game programmers use to replicate such a comp
licated system so vividly? I guess the answer must be discrete simulation. Sev
eral probability distributions, once expressed in the form of computer algorit
hms, revealed their essential control over this virtual system. Hooked by the
fantastic technique, I discovered the strong power of combination of probabili
ty and computation in solving practical problems. The moment I learned the ide
a of simulation, I recalled that report and understood what it was about.
During my last year in high school, a report changed my idea of mathematics an
d greatly influenced my decision to choose it as my undergraduate major. The r
eport claimed that, unlike in China, many American corporations regularly cons
ulted professors of mathematics department with problems they confronted in th
eir everyday operations within industry or business, and actively employed sug
gestions received to enhancing their efficiency and quality. Although I had no
idea of what suggestions math could offer to industry, this sense of possibil
ities still drove me to start my higher education as a math student in Nanjing
University.
The answer to this conundrum came in my junior year, when I began studying cou
rses like Operations Research, Probability, Mathematical Statistics and Mathem
atical Modeling. Besides the knowledge itself, I derived great pleasure from w
itnessing the whole process of how abstract mathematical theories gradually ev
olved into interesting solutions or methods with real-world concerns. For exam
ple, we spent almost the first whole month studying measure theories in this s
emester’s Advanced Probability Theory course. It was hard to sense any smell
of practical use from those “boring” subjects at first sight. However, once
probability was introduced as a special measure built on sigma-algebra, all ou
r previous preparation immediately paid off as we could directly derive many b
eautiful and useful conclusions from previous abstract theories. To me, this i
s the glamour of applied sciences. Those easily understandable conclusions are
built upon strict logic deductions that are actually not so obvious. Studies
in these fields are expeditions starting from curiosity and imagination, and e
nding with surprise and satisfaction.
The satisfactions I derived from math extended beyond those of classroom. My s
olid math background and active thinking style paid off at this year's America
n Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM), when our team tackled a problem of d
etermining the optimal number of tollbooths in a barrier-toll plaza. My main w
ork involved building queuing models to simulate the vehicles' sojourn and the
n using the simulation output results to find the optimal configuration of tol
lbooths. One of the main challenges I faced was how to construct an algorithm
to search for optimal solutions. After much investigation, I gave up my initia
l thought of a search in a multiple dimensional space because of its complexit
y and heavy computation burden. Instead, I constructed another simpler algorit
hm which drew on techniques of Linear Search and Multiple Objective Optimizati
on. This second method turned out to work very well. This experience made me r
ealize that solutions to industrial problems entailed in nature the tradeoffs
between efficiency and feasibility. What's more, math modeling should be a con
tinuous process rather than a complete representation of reality. In short, we
need to make consistent modifications to improve our approximations. When our
solution finally got an Honorable Mention, the highest award our department h
ad ever achieved, I was pleased not only at the award, but more at my successf
ul endeavor to combine abstract theories with computational techniques to solv
e real world problems.
Based on my former academic performances, I got the opportunity to study at Ho
ng Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) as an exchange student th
is semester with full scholarship support. Currently, I am taking a course fro
m Professor *** on Financial Mathematics. Those theories such as Black-Scholes
Formula show me how mathematics, such as Stochastic PDE has stretched its sup
port to social sciences and has reached fruitful results, which are not only b
eautiful in theory but also useful in practice. In addition, during my first m
onth, I enjoyed an opportunity to work as an assistant to a professor with int
erest in Optimization. This precious access to cutting-edge research topic sho
wed me the fundamental role math had been playing in innovative problem-solvin
g methodologies. Conducting OR research is like gradually bridging the gaps be
tween creative ideas and abstract theories. Getting involved within this proce
ss by myself is much more interesting than just learning them as a student.
Once I know where my true calling lies, I am earnestly committed to graduate s
tudy in Operations Research. *** is my dream school for academic growth. First
of all, *** has the world’s best professors in both Stochastic Systems and O
ptimization, two of my favorite fields. Secondly, ***’s balanced emphasis in
both tackling critical, real-world problems and new methodologies in research
topics are perfectly consistent with my research interests. Thirdly, after gra
duation, I desire to be a professor in a research university or researcher for
industry, where I can not only immerse myself in the enjoyment of creative wo
rk, but also share that happiness with my students and colleagues. ***’s outs
tanding reputation in either academic or professional world would equip me wit
h unbeatenable background.
What I cherished most in my past four year’s mathematical study is a strict t
raining in logical and quantitative analysis, which has equipped me with stron
g abilities to adapt to new academic world very quickly. Now this training has
raised me up to an arena to face this Information Age’s most challenging pro
blems and give me the honor to conquer them with the Queen of Science’s compa
ny.
最后给一个链接，应该说当初要是我没有看到这个网页，我也没有勇气申请IE，虽然我对
这个专业很感兴趣，但是毕竟近几年我们系申请IE或者OR的人不多。感谢Isabel的这个很有用的总结，也希望以后有更多数学系的同学能学习工业工程：https://bbs.gter.net/bb
s/viewthread.php?tid=267782&fpage=1&highlight=Isabel%2B2005%C9%EA%C7%EB%D7%DC%
BD%E1
--
All that noise and all that sound
All those places I have found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show ya how it all began
Birds came flyin from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
※ 来源:．南京大学小百合站 http://bbs.nju.edu.cn [FROM: 222.94.3.137][+reset]